Killing PC - One Word at a Time

A couple of weeks ago, James Hudnall posted an article at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, actually two articles on the need to kill Political Correctness and five actions that needed to be implemented to do it. My contribution to this very worthy effort is to take words that have been banished by PC and re-introduce them into the lexicon. I am going to examine several words, one word at a time, and I’m going to begin with the word I feel was one of the first to be branded taboo before PC even had a name. The word is “queer.”

The dictionary has this entry for “queer”;

queer  /kwɪər/ [kweer] -er, -est, verb, noun –adjective
1. strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint; unusually different; singular: a queer notion of justice.

2. of a questionable nature or character; suspicious; shady: Something queer about the language of the prospectus kept investors away.

3. not feeling physically right or well; giddy, faint, or qualmish: to feel queer.

4. mentally unbalanced or deranged.

5. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive
a. homosexual.
b. effeminate; unmanly.

6. Slang. bad, worthless, or counterfeit.

Clearly the reason the nascent PC crowd took aim at this word was because of definition #5. PC is all about protecting the sensibilities of those they deem to be victims or need protection from a cruel insensitive world. A noble thought, but nobody is going to think an “iron-age earthwork implement” is anything but a spade. Regardless of what words they use. So why not tell the truth in the simplest and most accurate way possible?

This is not meant to be a camouflaged screed against homosexuals. But in the media today, many of the familiar faces of “gay” are pretty queer characters. And the most notable example of what I’m talking about, all over the news recently is Perez Hilton. This guy is enough to keep gay men in the closet if they think people will have any idea that he (Hilton) is the model for what they are. No matter what Perez Hilton’s sexual proclivities are he is a very queer man.

His given name is Mario Lavandiera, but changed it to Perez Hilton as his way of gaining recognition by dint of association with Paris Hilton. Ms. Hilton could also be said to be queer. So wouldn’t it be "strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint", for a man to adopt the name of a very strange woman? Easier to say it’s queer. Much the same could be said of Marilyn Manson, now tell me he’s not queer.

Now the reason Perez Hilton is in the news so much lately, is the way he sandbagged Carrie Prejean – Miss California – at this year’s Miss USA pageant with a question about her views on same sex marriage. It was an underhanded dirty trick meant to paint Miss Prejean in a disparaging light. His tactic was "of a questionable nature or character; suspicious; shady." Again, isn’t it easier just to say “queer”?

When Hilton began receiving much deserved criticism for his ploy he went off on a number of angry obscenity laced diatribes against Miss Prejean and his increasing number of critics. And a number of his critics researched his past blogging activity and learned that he is given to all sorts detached rages against any number of targets. A lot of his writings could fairly be described as "mentally unbalanced or deranged." For the sake of brevity, can’t we just say “queer”?

Most decent people don’t like to cast aspersions at people who are different from themselves. But one look at Perez Hilton and after hearing a few sentences from his mouth I would describe him as "effeminate; unmanly." Queer. I don’t mean it as derogatory, but it is an accurate assessment.

Queer is a very flexible adjective. It is not an epithet. Gay men love to use it when they want to get in-your-face with those they see as being opposed to their political agenda. “We’re here, We’re queer!”

I can’t see a good reason not to bring “queer” back into common use even when directed at people whose behavior or personal presentation is just that. If they are uncomfortable with that description that’s hard cheese. It’s always been that way for anyone outside the mainstream. And it doesn’t matter who they sleep with. Get used to it.